Your chances are as good as ever...

In response to my last post, Kath lamented that getting published in NZ today as a newcomer seems impossible. What are the chances?

From where I sit Kath I have to say the chances seem as good as ever. Chances were never good, but newcomers still do get published every year. In the wake of the recession, publishing lists were cut and several boutique publishers (Mallinson Rendel, Longacre) were absorbed by a couple of the big international publishing names (Penguin and Random respectively). Publishers across the board were tightening purse strings and Scholastic NZ, the biggest children's-only publisher here closed to unsolicited submissions, an uncommon position in this country. And it certainly may appear that the same names are turning up on the covers of the books in the bookshops.

However if you know your local authors well you can spot the new ones too. Anna Gowan and Leonie Agnew are new faces in the junior novel area. Juliette MacIver is new in picture books as is Chris Gurney and Belynda Smith. I'm sure there are others that have slipped my mind.

Several avenues exist for new writers such as the Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon and Tessa Duder Awards for junior and YA fiction. You cannot enter for these awards if you are previously published. While the Joy Cowley Award for a picture book is open to the previously published, this is how many new writers are noticed by Scholastic who participate in judging the entries and publish the winners of the Joy Cowley and Tom Fitzgibbon (Harper Collins publish the winner of the Tessa Duder Award). Scholastic have published the books of other finalists as well. I was twice a finalist in the Joy Cowley Award and while this didn't result directly in publication of my entries at the time, it was a huge boost for me as a writer and resulted in some fantastic feedback which has seen both stories being published more recently. Entries close on October 31st for these Awards every year.

And we now have new boutique publishers springing up. David Ling's Duck Creek Press  has taken on a new picture book writer and new illustrators in the last few years and Pear Jam Books, just launched by author Jill Marshall, is publishing 14 titles this year of which 5 are by previously unpublished authors and another couple are by newish authors.

I got my break with Learning Media and Australia's School Journal who first published several short stories I had written during a Writing for Children paper I did at Massey University as part of my English Degree. One of the most important things I did to help myself along was join several writer's organisations (Storylines, NZSA, Kiwiwrite4kidz) which introduced me to other people experiencing the same difficulties and challenges that I was on my quest for publication. We share triumphs, disappointments and tales of survival. We also share tips and information that make our journey easier.

So don't despair. A blog I follow in the UK by the much published author Nicola Morgan recently featured a post in which she spoke about her twenty year journey to publication. She was first published well before the global recession but it still took her twenty years to reach that first contract. It is very tough to get published. Sometimes it takes a while to find your niche, your voice, your style. Sometimes it takes a while to find the right story for the right time - the one that starts you off. If you are serious about being published as a children's author then you have to hang in there. Keep writing. Take heart. Join with the rest of us and we can hang in there together.

Well developed tenterhook muscles...

T'was very exciting to see the final pictures for my next picture book on Monday. I don't know what anyone else will think but I am satisfied. They have humour and energy and subtlety. They capture my story. And the good news is the book will be published in June. This is not far away. I popped this manuscript in the post to the publisher on September 28th last year. I have a picture book manuscript that has been under consideration with another publisher since the beginning of last year that I am still awaiting a response on. And if you take from this that no two publishers operate the same (and you would be correct in this) remember to add on that the same publisher may behave differently for different manuscripts. Maybe the best advice for prospective writers is 'expect the unexpected.' Writers are permanently on tenterhooks which is why our tenterhook muscles are so well developed.

And further to my musing on the question of whether being an author from the Antipodes makes any difference to being published outside of Australasia (still unanswered but I'm tending towards 'maybe it does') I now offer a new thought. Getting published offshore has been the Holy Grail for me for many years. That way lies greatness? riches? fame and fortune? Well...the comment from Book Brainz about the comparatively high quality of picture books in New Zealand made me wonder if that Holy Grail is a bit like a dragon - mythical and ethereal. Evidence would suggest that the sheer size of populations overseas makes print runs and therefore advances and subsequent potential income greater. But evidence also shows the difficulties of getting published, of staying published and of avoiding being remaindered are no different in other places. In a larger population where many more authors are being published annually how much harder is it to get noticed and build a name for yourself. I would still like to be published overseas. But the books I have had published here have been beautifully produced and the illustrations wonderful and at least some part of the writing and reading community know my name. I like it here. Why is 'overseas' automatically perceived as 'better'? I have to remember that yes they do have grass over there too but that doesn't mean its greener.

Some info on getting published in NZ...

Update! You can find a revised 2016 version of this post with additional information here

Spent the morning with a lovely bunch of folk discussing children's writing. As promised below is some info on getting published in New Zealand.

So you’ve read your story umpteen times, checked and re-checked it for mistakes, edited it till it sparkles and written ‘The End’ – what do you do next?
How to Submit

1. Re-read your work again. If possible read aloud – you don’t need an audience for this but it is amazing what reading aloud will show you about your work – repetition, incorrect or missing punctuation, troublesome flow, missing information, or dialogue confusion.

2. Research the market – where should you send it? Who publishes this kind of thing? What are their submission guidelines?

Writing and Illustrating for Children Handbook
(available by writing to the address below - the book contains contact and susmission information on NZ publishers of material for children)
Central Library
Christchurch City Libraries
P O Box 1466
Christchurch 8140

This booklet is $6.00 plus $1.50 p&p

PANZ Publishers Directory
current version available for download at:

http://bpanz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/panz-directory-final-2009_10.pdf

-Writers and Artists Yearbook
-Children’s Writers and Artists Yearbook
-Writers and Illustrators Market
-Children’s Writers and Illustrators Market
(these books published annually are available in good bookshops)

3. Do what the submission guidelines say – DO NOT DO ANYTHING ELSE. They supply guidelines because this is how they want to receive your stories. You would be surprised by how many people ignore the guidelines. While doing something different may make you stand out, it makes you stand out for the wrong reasons. Follow the guidelines.

4. Query/covering letter. You need to include the name of your manuscript, the word count, genre, the intended market, a brief outline of the work, and your publishing credits if any. For fiction you will need a synopsis and either several chapters or the entire manuscript as per submission guidelines. For non-fiction you generally submit a proposal.


Educational Markets
Learning Media – School Journals (www.learningmedia.co.nz )
School Magazine – Australia (www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/services/schoolmagazine/index.htm )
Pearson (www.pearsoned.co.nz )

Competitions
Check out the NZSA website (www.authors.org.nz ) for details on competitions, fellowships, and awards

-Sunday Star Short Story Competition
-Katherine Mansfield Short Story Competition
-Joy Cowley Award (picture book)
-Tom Fitzgibbon Award (children's novel by an unpublished author)

Agents
We don’t have many in New Zealand. You do not need an agent to get published here. NZ Publishers are used to dealing directly with the author. If you would like to try overseas markets then you would benefit from having either a NZ or overseas agent. It’s not impossible to get one. Check out www.elseware.co.nz/NZALA/Index.htm for those NZ agents who belong to the NZ Association of Literary Agents. Books such as the Writers Market and Writers Yearbooks mentioned above have contact details for overseas agents.

Writers Organisations
NZSA (www.authors.org.nz )
Kiwiwrite4kidz (http://www.kiwiwrite4kidz.co.nz/ )
Storylines (http://www.storylines.org.nz/)
NZ Book Council (http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/)

If you are serious about writing there are a lot of benefits in belonging to writer’s organisations and joining critique groups. I have learnt more from my fellow writers than I ever could have learnt on my own.


Handy things to have

An up-to-date, reputable Dictionary
A Roget’s Thesaurus
Reference books – Baby names
Dictionary of Classical Mythology
Dictionary of Phrase and fable
Biographical Dictionary
‘How to’ Books
Books on Grammar (The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B.White, Longman)

Let me explain what I meant by that last blog post title...

Eeek - reading the title of my last post i realised this could easily be misconstrued and I'd better set the record straight. The important thing here is that you have seen the new television reality show Wipeout where contestants go through a barrage of physical challenges to win $50,000. Its a modern day assault course of enormous bouncy balls that have to be traversed, rope swings that take you to impossible-to-cling-to vertical walls, hopping unstable platforms on water, jumping over fast moving objects, dodging punching gloves popping randomly out of a wall that push you into a pool of mud etc...Some parts are fun, some look downright bruising. Its hard to explain but its easy entertaining viewing on a sunday night and my children especially have become fans who want to give it all a go themselves. While the publishing industry seems to be slowing somewhat here in NZ I would not want to give anyone the impression it is wiped out. Rather, getting accepted for publication seems like having to get through the assault course and it is almost impossible to come through without getting muddy, and a little bit battered. And you don't win 50,000 either, although the potential prize of publication is still motivation enough to keep you leaping, bounding, jumping and pushing yourself to the limits.

My eldest daughter is part of the Allstar Cheerleading team that got through to the next round of NZ's got Talent last Monday night. They only showed highlights on Monday and I'm looking forward to seeing the whole routine during the semi-finals. Usually a flyer (doing stunts while being tossed up by a base group of three others) with her senior team, my daughter is one of the oldest members of this group and bases one of the younger team members but she does do some gymnastic style tumbling with flik flaks etc...which can look amazing.

Today i am earning a few dollars 'invigilating'. That word just blows my mind but i'm getting better at wrapping my tongue around it. Don't worry, I'm not carrying a gun and wearing a badge, it just means I'm supervising an exam this afternoon in town. Exam rules seem to have got a bit stricter so i'll probably need to take the full 15 minutes before the exam starts to go through the instructions. As its my first go at this I feel like I'm sitting the exam myself.

The harsh realities of the business...

I was reading a very sobering article the other day written by an Australian author about the harsh realities of publishing. About the difficulties of getting published, staying published, getting funding, getting noticed, and selling books. I couldn't help nodding my head as I read along. I recognized so much of what he was saying to be true. Some things made me realise how lucky I am to have got this far, other things were daunting. I wondered would I want to know these things if I was just starting out and it got me thinking....

Deep down, when I first began, I did know how hard it is to get published. Its one of the things that stopped me writing when I was younger and kept me looking for a 'proper' job. But once I did give in to the desire to write, if I hadn't had an inkling of how tough it is I probably would have been devastated by my first rejection. Knowing rejection was inevitable helped me through it. Knowing some of the other hurdles made me push a little harder to get over them.

Since my first acceptance letter, through subsequent events in my writing career I've learned most of the other stuff. How getting your first book published is just the beginning of the journey not the end and how tricky every step is and how unforgiving the terrain. Even though I wished I 'd known more at the beginning its probably better that I didn't. And you kind of have to experience some things to know about them. To a certain extent, in writing, everyone's journey is a little different. Especially in New Zealand where the sample size of children's writers is pretty small, to find two people who have had the same experiences with publishers, contracts, agents and book buyers, written similar things, and followed the same pathway is unlikely. And what worked for me may be a disaster for someone else. Some things you have to discover for yourself.

Some of the things I read in that article made me feel better. The statistic about how many people recieve arts funding showed me i'm not alone in my failure to be funded. But much of the article was bleak and depressing. Will i battle on regardless? - I'm in too deep to stop now. Especially as I know its the right job for me. I'm stuck with this uncompromising career of pushing something runny uphill with a pointed stick. Its the only job i've ever wanted to try this hard at. And for every 80% of bad news, there's 20% good news. Someone's got to be in that 20% I'm going to see if it can be me!